Richard Axel and his colleagues have provided physical evidence for a model of olfactory coding in which sensory neurons expressing a given receptor are randomly distributed within the epithelium, but project their axons to fixed loci within the olfactory bulb. A given odorant will interact with multiple receptors and activate multiple glomeruli which reside at precisely defined loci in the olfactory bulb. The discrimination of odor quality would result from the detection of specific patterns of activity within the olfactory bulb. Thus, the peripheral logic of olfactory perception is likely to involve topographically fixed maps within the bulb which encode odor quality.

Selected Publications:

• Buck, L., and Axel, R. A novel multigene family may encode odorant receptors: A molecular basis for odor recognition. Cell 65: 175-187 (1991).
• Ngai, J., Dowling, M.M., Buck. L., Axel, R., and Chess, A. The family of genes encoding odorant receptors in the channel catfish. Cell 72: 657-666 (1993).
• Ngai, J., Chess, A., Dowling, M.M., Necles, N., Macagno, E.R., and Axel, R. Coding of olfactory information: Topography of odorant receptor expression in the catfish olfactory epithelium. Cell 72: 667-680 (1993).
• Vassar, R., Ngai, J., and Axel, R. Spatial segregation of odorant receptor expression in the mammalian olfactory epithelium. Cell 74: 309-318 (1993).
• Chess, A., Simon, E., Cedar, H., and Axel, R. (1994). Allelic inactivation regulates olfactory receptor gene expression. Cell. 78, 823-834.
• Vassar, R., Chao, S.K., Sitcheran, R., Nunez, J., Vosshall, L.B., and Axel, R. (1994). Topographic organization of sensory projections to the olfactory bulb. Cell. 79: 981-991.
• Axel, R. The molecular logic of smell. Scientific American. 273: 154-159 (1995).
• Dulac, C., and Axel, R. A novel family of genes encoding putative pheromone receptor in mammals. Cell. 83: 195-206 (1995).
• Mombaerts, P., Wang, F., Dulac, D., Chao, S.K., Nemes, A., Mendelsohn M., Edmondson, J., and Axel, R. Visualizing an olfactory sensory map. Cell. 87: 675-686 (1996).
• Amrein, H., and Axel, R. Genes expressed in neurons of adult male drosophila. Cell. 88: 459-469 (1997).
• Yang, J.H., Sklar, P., Axel, R., and Maniatis, T. Purification and characterization of a human RNA adenosine deaminase for glutamate receptor B pre-mRNA editing. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 94: 4354-4359 (1997).
• Belluscio, L., Gold, G.H., Nemes, A., and Axel, R. Mice deficient in Golf are anosmic. Neuron. 20: 69-81 (1998).
• Wang, F., Nemes, A. Mendelsohn, M., and Axel, R. Odorant receptors govern the formation of a precise topographic map. Cell. 93: 47-60 (1998).